George, a fern, doesn’t appreciate being bought by Brenda at Garden Palace.
Rating: 5/5
George, a fern, doesn’t appreciate being bought by Brenda at Garden Palace.
And he certainly doesn’t appreciate being trapped in her house of humans. He yearns to be with the plants outside in the garden. With time, George learns to trust Brenda and think of her as his human. Then one day, tragedy strikes and George’s life will never be the same. What happens when a houseplant loses the thing he never knew he wanted?
You'll never look at houseplants the same way again.
I received an ARC copy of The Houseplant from Jeremy Ray in return for my honest review. Thank you so much!
Oh! I just loved this one! I loved everything about it! This book gave me all the feels. I told Jeremy this, but I feel like I was part of George’s Fan Club way before! After I finished his previous short story, The Gatherings, there were short descriptions of future short stories and I immediately latched on to The Houseplant. I would constantly ask Jeremy when it would come out!
I must say the wait was so worth it. This short story was just perfect! I loved it from beginning to end. It made me laugh, it made my heartbreak, then it made my heart swell. It honestly couldn’t have ended any more perfectly.
Now I don’t want to give away too much, but I’ll go into a little about what this is about. It’s called The Houseplant and it’s just that. It’s about a houseplant, a fern named George. We follow the story told from George’s perspective. We see how he disagrees with his human, Brenda about how it wasn’t love at first sight at the nursery. We see his experiences at the nursery, and when Brenda takes him home, having no experience caring for plants. George truly makes it entertaining to read with his sassy attitude on how he hates humans and constantly thinks he’s going to die. Eventually, we see George starting to care for his human.
This story is the complete opposite of Jeremy’s previous short story, The Gatherings. So I didn’t know what to expect with this one. I can’t say which one I loved more. They’re not something I can truly compare against each other. But I will say, Jeremy, is an amazing writer. I know I’ll be able to pick up anything of his and will probably enjoy it. I can’t wait to read more of your work, Jeremy! You’ve got a forever fan over here! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this!
I think if you’re looking for a good laugh, you should definitely pick this one up! Whether you’re a green thumb or not, this is such a fun read!
Semi-unrelated note!
I just go into to talking about my own plant parent experiences!
So I've never been a very good plant parent. I really only had one plant in my room growing up! It was what I called my goldfish plant because the flowers that bloom literally look like little goldfishes. I had the plant for years! One year it finally looked like it was too small for its current pot, so my mom helped me replant it in a new bigger pot. It didn't like that decision and went into shock and against my wishes died.
I went a few years before trying again, I found the same plant and tried again but that plant didn't last very long either, unfortunately. Since then I hadn't really had a plant for my own room. I've grown a few things in our garden. I also tried growing basil from seed this year with success! But, basil eventually dies off.
After reading The Houseplant, I knew I wanted to try again! I was aiming to get a succulent as they're mostly easy to maintain. When I say mostly... I mean I've successfully killed one... Don't judge me! Haha! I accidentally left it in the sun too long. Sorry, plant!
I went looking for a succulent at my local grocery store. I spent my time looking around at all the plants. Nothing really stood out to me. My mom had mentioned to me that she knew that they moved some of the plants to a different portion of the store so I should make sure to check the ones out over there. So after wandering the plant section of the store, I made my way to the other side my mom mentioned. There were in fact some more plants! But it was mainly flowers. I wandered around some more and saw there was this display that went behind the counter a bit. Then, I saw the plant that's in this picture.
I swear when I picked it up I could feel its attitude saying to itself "goddammit not me" the plant made me smile and I thought it was cute! So I took it home with me! Hopefully, I have better success this time! I've never named a plant before, so I haven't really thought of a name for it?
Do you think I should name it? Do you have a suggestion?
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